Houston, TXUSAjeudi 24 janvier 2013 ‐ samedi 9 mars 2013

Concurrent with Rosa Loy's show, McClain Gallery presents a group exhibition of six male artists in the West Gallery space. A presentation of diverse media, Portal will feature works by contemporary artists Kent Dorn, Cameron Gainer, Rashid Johnson, Bo Joseph, Kohei Nawa, and Aaron Spangler.

The works in the show were chosen due to a shared allusion to a transformative space or experience, and also with a keen focus on varied interest in mark-making, escapism, materiality, and the mystical. All six artists uniquely and poignantly address art as possessing the potential for altering one's experience of self, perception, appearance, or place.

A monolithic sculpture by Aaron Spangler anchors the exhibition with its allusion to otherworldly, timeless space. In both the sculpture and three large-scale rubbings on unstretched linen, Spangler integrates unidentifiable structures, mechanical objects, natural formations, and at times, figural elements as points of entry for the viewer. Houston-based Kent Dorn's ephemeral graphite drawings on layered tracing paper belie their delicate appearance with a nod to psychedelic subject matter and a hypnotic naturalism. Also included in the exhibition are two paintings by Rashid Johnson made of inky black soap and wax, which possess a tactility and allude to transformation from one state of being to another.

Bo Joseph, an artist in the McClain Gallery stable, contributes two graphic works on paper that densely layer ethnographic source references from a range of time periods and cultures. Japanese artist Kohei Nawa's hologram encased in a glass vitrine resides simultaneously in a state of existence and non-existence. The reflective surface causes the deer skull and antlers to be both reflected and absorbed in an almost unnerving synthesis of art and science. Cameron Gainer's recast meteorite offers a poetic reference to crossing over into another realm and materially "resetting an atomic clock".